DaySpring Daily Word of Inspiration: Psalm 37:4 – Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.
We’ve all heard this great scripture before. Actually we use it all of the time! God will give us the desires of our heart! Yay! But wait a tick, is that it? We just pray and ask and He gives us exactly what we want? Not necessarily but yes….if that makes any sense to you. Let me explain…
There are three key things that we need to assess as we break down this passage: First, we have to stop taking scripture out of context! We can’t expect to truly live out scripture if we’re only reading half of it or only getting out of it the parts that we want or that make us feel good. Secondly, we have an action that we need to complete which activates God’s willing promises to provide for us and lastly, we have to examine what our true desires are.
The first two (2) items really go hand and hand. We can’t just think we can always ask for what we want and think God is supposed to or is going to give us everything we ask for. The scripture is definitive in its statement – “Delight yourself in the Lord”. To delight in something is to take pleasure in. Simply put we need to take pleasure in all of that which is the Lord. When we do this we have a true love for all that He is and we subsequently develop desires of the heart that He personally has. How do you take pleasure in the Lord? Well I’d ask you how do you delight or take pleasure in a sports activity you like or a hobby you enjoy – you do it constantly!!! You make time for it, you study it, you tell others about its intricacies, and you’re most importantly proud and happy to do it! By being engulfed in everything about the Lord; through prayer daily, reading his word daily, and praising Him daily we gain a greater regard for His substance, His nature and it makes us happy to know more, embrace more, and be more like Him. We truly showcase what we delight and take pleasure in while living this life by the value we place on a particular person, place, or thing.
Lastly, we have to retool our minds about what the real desires of our hearts are. Now, I’m nobody and I know I can’t read mind, I get that, however, we sometimes assume (even in ourselves) that our true desire is one thing when in actuality it’s another. And honestly because we are more focused on the obvious than our true desire, we tend to get mad at God for not coming through when we want him to, when in reality HE HAS!!!! Oh you don’t believe me? Let me see if this example will help: so let’s say you’re praying to God to help you with your finances. Bills are stacking up and things look bleak. You’re frustrated, confused, and feeling hopeless. All of this time you’ve been praying that God help you out but in your mind there has been no answer. Now, the obvious desire would be to get rid of the bills but what is the true desire? Whether you’re single or a parent, it would be to have or keep a place to live, to have food on your table, to be able to get back and forth to work, to make sure the kids are fed and healthy, and for God to let you make it through the day without breaking down! When we recognize that God has actually come through – yet again, it should pleasure us (once again); we should delight and desire to give Him praise for what has and continues to do! He’s given you the real desire of your heart.
Today we pray that as you meditate on this devotional that you’re inspired to really learn to delight in the Lord – and not only for what He will do in granting the desires of your heart but for all those He has been granting that you really care about. Test Him in this, that if you can give Him praise for what He has done and even in the midst of your circumstances, maybe your delight in Him will open a flood gate that will knock down all of those obvious things that are plaguing you too. It starts with us; the closer we get to Him in delight the better we see what our real desires will be. Think about it, He’s already given us desires of our hearts. Can you give Him praise and delight in that? In Jesus’ name, AMEN!